Failed breakthrough, the death of loved ones, separation from family, inevitable tragedy. I wanted to read novels that the Protagonist actually had to fear the Antagonist for they can easily bring suffering to him and his family. The setting should be extremely hostile to the protagonist, actively aiming for his life. The life of the Protagonist should be almost always in peril, having to hide from the danger of the enemies constantly. The situation he was in should suppress his control over his actions, forcing him to become stressful and paranoid. He could have a good background or great strength, but the antagonist MUST have something that could contend and suppressed external help, making nobody other than the Protagonist to help himself. There should also be lasting consequences or impacts from his decisions, either it ended in tragedy because of his naiveness or ended in provoking a stronger enemy from his arrogant. Also, a big plus if the Protagonist has some existential crisis or moral breakdown. Conflict in philosophy is also welcomed. TLDR: I wanted novels where MC had to experience tragedy and grew as a character, changing his world view and becoming more experience as time passed. The life of the MC should have some setbacks that had lasting consequences.
The Dungeon Seeker.... MC got NTRed, pushed into a dungeon, got to fight everyday just to survive, make deal with god to go outside for a while, found a girl only for the girl got killed by former childhood gf, got transfer back to dungeon, last manga chapter I read he currently fight against that bitch ex. No idea where's the current novel translation is. The novel basically revenge theme where MC gain power just to kill. don't expect MC emotional improvement since he and his ex both become a psyco
Otherworldly Evil Monarch is a good fit. Constant threat from the kingdom first and then the Sacred Lands, creating a fake master and knowing he doesn't have proper backup and that they can aim for his family (which they do multiple times), he's quite hard pressed as he rises from a trash young master and his mortal world aristocratic family to a colossus that surpasses Sacred Lands.
Hmmmmm... gonna recommend a Royalroad one, it is kind of popular ? Kinda half you want. The world is a shit hole with quite a fair shair of villains, MC is near death every X days but somehow the village that accepts MC is a nice heaven. *Didn't read far* But somehow MC survive everything and no tragedy occurs ? Soooooo yeaaaaaaah kinda not sure you want it. Savage Divinity Beside the fact that the world is shithole, the fact that made stop reading it is that i was spoiled that despite the fact the bunny loli/girl (that THIS FUCKING ANNOYING MC KEPT REJECTING FOR SHIT REASON = Nope. She feels like only a sister to me.) became his fiancée, he don't have sex with her AT ALL. So yep, MC kinda got trouble of personalities, near became a devil cultivator or something, is drunkard and visit brothels.
female MC: gomen ne onii-sama male MC: your and my asylum re:zero Hai to gensou no grimgar Do You Think You Can Run After Reincarnating, Nii-san? Nejimaki Seirei Senki – Tenkyou no Alderamin
Renegade Immortal, until maybe 800 chaps? Technically the world never stops being hostile to MC, but MC just gets too many powerups and becomes too OP for it to matter...
Monarch didn't interest me. The others are good. Already dropped. Read one of his novel and was told that all of them read almost exactly the same. What kind of personality? I don't mind evil MC. Already read all of them. Heard that the MC is kinda bland. Gomen ne Onii-sama is ded. Your and My Asylum didn't interest me. Re Zero is also boring. Already read Grimgar You Can Run Nii-san is ded already read the Nejimaka
Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai Throne of Magical Arcana - though this one had the MC's life turn for the better after working hard for it.
I think you should update your reading list:, because none of these are on your list You Can Run Nii-san: translations are dead, but raws aren't. One more: Fate/Zero
Well, I bought the book version of it so I didn't mark it here. I also can't read raw. I watched the anime Fate/Zero and I don't think there is any significant difference.
Pursuit of the Truth/Beseach the Devil. If you read ISSTH, you should have heard about The Devil. From what I see, you read ISSTH, so I will summarize it like this. The closest thing would be the combination of blood war arc + add 9th hex arc and make it darker and more tragic. That is more or less how this story feels.
Thread like this, I would said every cultivation world are harsh world where people killing and stealling for power not to mention cultivators also used baby and people soul as magic tool degenerated world
A Deadly Secret This particular book was inspired by the real story of a man who was imprisoned on false charges just so that a landowner could steal his fiance. It's all about injustice and the evils that people can commit so it should be right up the OP's alley. The Deer and the Cauldron This is the best book on NU so everyone should read it. It's a wuxia novel where the protagonist starts weak and stays that way so he has to use his wits and his luck to survive as opposed to beating people up. While he does command a fair bit of authority, he's always the underdog and he suffers a lot of setbacks.